New hate crimes chief breaks with de Blasio on anti-Semitism

NEW YORK POST:

The director of the mayor’s new Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes is already disagreeing with her new boss — who claimed in June that anti-Semitism is a right-wing movement.

“He’s correct to say there are threats that come from the right wing. There are also threats that come from the left,” said Deborah Lauter at a City Hall press conference Tuesday announcing her new position.

“I don’t know the mayor’s schedule but I can assure you that everything that’s been communicated to me is the mayor’s taking this extremely seriously,” Lauter said when asked why de Blasio was a no-show. She also hasn’t met with the mayor since taking the job last week.

Lauter, who worked at the Anti-Defamation League for 18 years before taking the city position, said she was “not aware” of a right-wing threat of anti-Semitism in New York.

At a June press conference addressing a 90 percent spike in anti-Jewish incidents in the city, de Blasio said that “the ideological movement that is anti-Semitic is the right-wing movement.” At the same event, NYPD Chief Dermot Shea said perpetrators of hate crimes include teens, people with mental illness, first-time offenders and career criminals.